It’s been a busy summer season so far, and we are happy to finally announce the winner of our December Atlas Challenge!
December was the first month of the Atlas Summer season, and with that we wanted to encourage the Atlas community to be out gathering as much data as possible. With that in mind, the Atlas challenge was geared towards increasing data upload, and boy did we see a lot of data uploaded! To qualify, all you had to do was submit 60 complete checklists to the Atlas eBird portal during the month of December. As always, these checklists had to include counts for every species reported (no X’s!), be submitted to the NZ Atlas eBird portal, and needed to follow the best practices outlined here to increase their scientific value.
Over 7,500 complete checklists were submitted to the Atlas portal in December, with 35 Atlasers qualifying for the challenge by submitting more than 60. This is a fantastic amount of data going in to the portal over such a short time period. From those 35 we randomly selected Phil Battley as the winner! Phil submitted a total of 61 complete checklists to the Atlas eBird portal during December, detailing a total of 78 species, across 20 grid squares. As you can see, Phil put in some hard work that has certainly paid off! All of these checklists were complete, with accurate abundances for all species, greatly increasing the scientific value of Phil’s observations. Phil has contributed valuable data across a wide spatial area, helping further increase the Atlas dataset. This is part of Phil’s wider Atlasing efforts putting in a huge amount of his time and effort since the project began in 2019. With that in mind please join us in congratulating him on being randomly selected as our winner! Phil has received a free year’s subscription to Birds of the World, and we know that he will make the most of this to help support his fantastic Atlasing and ornithological research.
Congratulations to all those who qualified too, and don’t forget we have a nocturnal themed challenge set this month, and there will continue to be challenges each month.
As usual, we asked Phil some questions below to feature him as our next Atlaser Profile. Phil works as an Associate Professor in Zoology and Ecology at Massey University.
Setting up for an ultimately unsuccessful cannon-net attempt, Nov 2021. Photo: Anthony Behrens.
Can you tell us a bit about your background, how long you have been birding and what first got you interested in birds?
I got hooked on birds through the Auckland Junior Zoo Club in 1983. They would have monthly meetings on a Saturday morning with a keeper and you’d learn about different groups of animals and explore the zoo. Something clicked during a bird walk (it was a greenfinch on the fence!) and there was no looking back. I joined the Ornithological Society then and have been birding ever since. I got interested in shorebirds, studied zoology at university, and stuck with shorebirds for my masters and PhD research. Eventually I ended up back at Massey University where I am a lecturer in the Wildlife and Ecology Group. Shorebirds are still a focus of my research, so I get to watch birds and call it work.
How long have you been using eBird?
I wasn’t a great eBirder until the Atlas came along, but I jumped in wholeheartedly then. I now recommend it to everyone.
How are you liking the current Atlas project so far?
Loving it, especially the way that it makes every seemingly random observation valuable. It also really increases your birding skills and awareness of bird calls and behaviour.
How valuable do you feel the Atlas is going to be for bird conservation and research in Aotearoa New Zealand?
It will be huge. The volume of information being collected is incredible, and the requirement for numbers of birds to be counted will set this atlas apart from previous ones. I can see it having a real role to play in habitat conservation.
Do you have any standout Atlasing moments?
Te Potae Ridge, February 2021 | © Phil Battley
Atlasing forest birds in the Ruahine Range while clearing traps with DOC and the Ruahine Whio Protectors. This area is difficult to access (you get helicoptered in…) but the forest is amazing and has had regular aerial pest control as well as trap lines. Rifleman and whitehead are the commonest bush birds there, and because of the atlas we have the counts to show it.
Have you got any tips/advice for new Atlasers who are thinking of getting involved with the Atlas and eBird?
Realise that any count you make is worthwhile. You can do them at home while hanging out the washing, and over the year those will reveal a lot about your local patch. We’ve done them when stopped for roadworks, when waiting for a ferry, when taking a break from driving. Expect your ears to do a lot of the work for you. So much bird detection is from their calls, and you many find yourself rapidly improving your bird call identification skills.
Whio, Maropea Forks Jan 2021 | © Phil Battley
We are very grateful to the team at Birds of the World for kindly donating a free year’s subscription for our challenge. Birds of the World engages the global ornithological community to create the most in-depth, science-based content to illustrate the life histories of birds and bird families.
We have some more great prizes to be won just by Atlasing in future monhtly challenges, so please do keep your eyes peeled on our News page, Facebook or Instagram, to learn how.
Happy Atlasing!